Benchmarking
1) Selection Of Vehicles :
The vehicles were chosen with careful consideration based on the requirements of Mr. Pughazhyendhii, he required a car that could seat 5, is suitable for driving in the city on a daily basis and 500 km trip once a month and should fall in his budget of 8-10 Lakhs. He mentioned he likes big cars and since he lives in Bangalore, which has terrible road conditions, only compact SUVs were chosen. The selected vehicles for comparison are :
- Nissan Magnite (XV Turbo)
- Maruti Suzuki Brezza (ZXi)
- Mahindra XUV 300
- Hyundai Venue (1.0 Turbo iMT)
2) Benchmarking :
Benchmarking is the process of studying the market for the suitable products, in this case the products are vehicles, which would be competitors to your product. Comparisons for the competition is made to better understand what is being offered in the market currently and what your product should ideally offer or go beyond to make sure the product that is being launched fairs well against its competition.
Benchmarking occurs during the first stage, which is the predesign and development stage, of any product's development phase. It is usually done in multiple stages to ensure that the final concept of the product is ensured to offer similar or more features than its competitors.
The first stage of benchmarking is usually done to understand the what competition has to offer in the market. This is the stage where the competion for your product is decided. In this case we are benchmarking a car, so we identify and compare the prices, features offered and the specifications of the competition to decide what our product should have in these criterias.
The second stage of benchmarking is where the comparisons are made on a individual component level, this is done to see how much a better performing car can be developed or in other way, it is done to see how much weight could possibly be reduced.
Some of the criterias that will be used in the second stage of benchmarking are the number of stamping parts used, the weight of these parts, the weight of the metal used, the average thickness of the underbody coating and such. These criterias will shed better light to the engineers on how to and where to decrease or increase the weight of the components of the vehicle and how to possibly decrease the number of parts used as compared to its competitors.
3) Comparison of the Selected Vehicles
The table below shows the basic figures and stats of each vehicle :
| Vehicle Name | Price | Power (bhp) | Torque (Nm) | Fuel Effeciency (Kmpl) | Weight (Kg) | Seating | Transmission |
| Nissan Magnite (XV Turbo) | 9,18,000 | 99 | 152 | 17.7 | 1039 | 5 | Automatic (CVT) |
| Maruti Brezza (ZXi) | 9,42,000 | 103 | 138 | 17.03 | 1120 | 5 | Manual (5 Gears) |
| Mahindra XUV 300 | 9,87,000 | 109 | 200 | 17 | 1400 | 5 | Manual (6 Gears) |
| Hyundai Venue (1.0 Turbo iMT) | 9,11,000 | 118 | 172 | 17.8 | 1200 | 5 | Automatic (iMT) |
This table gives a basic overview of what the vehicle is capable of and it can be seen that all the vehicles chosen are just under the 10 Lakh mark as the highest possible trim was chosen for this comparison.
Next we compare the pros and cons of each vehicle to get a better understanding of them and to hone in on the best choice for the customer :
- Nissan Magnite
| Pros | Cons |
| Comes with a CVT Transmission | High speed driving is not as good as the competition |
| Spacious and feature loaded cabin | Interior quality is not as good as its rivals |
| Peppy engine | The presence and service network is less than other brands in comparison |
| Quirky design that makes it stand out |
- Maruti Suzuki Brezza (ZXi)
| Pros | Cons |
| The seating is higher than competitors | Ride is quite firm at low speeds |
| Light steering which provides an ease to drive | Fit and finish is sub par compared to the rivals |
| Maruti has an extensive service network throughout the country | Engine gets noisy after crossing 2500 RPM |
- Mahindra XUV 300
| Pros | Cons |
| Very roomy cabin with good head and knee room | Boot space is not adequate. Definitely too small for a SUV |
| Light steering, clutch & gearbox which makes it a breeze to drive | Petrol options do not have an automatic gearbox on offer |
| Petrol and Diesel are very refined | Interior fit and finish isnt the best |
| Although not as extensive Maruti, mahindra themselves have a fairly god service network throughout the country |
- Hyundai Venue (1.0 Turbo iMT)
| Pros | Cons |
| Very unique gearbox on offer. The iMT gearbox provides the best of both an automatic and manual transmission | Cabin space is not as adequate as its rivals |
| Very good low and mid range, which ensures comfortable driving in traffic | Top spec variants get too expensive |
| Petrol and Diesel are very refined | |
| Comes loaded with features such as the creep and hill hold functions |
4) Conclusion :
Based on all the above mentioned points and comparative figures given above, I would like to conclude this by saying the Hyundai Venue (1.0 Turbo iMT) is the best choice for Mr. Pughazhyendhii as the Venue is a car that sits in his budget and second cheapest among the options but at the same time it is also the most powerful vehicle in the given choices. Since Mr. Pughazhyendhii will be primarily driving in the city, a car with an automatic transmission would be ideal and the Hyundai offers a hybrid iMT transmission that would be ideal for city as well as highway driving. This car is loaded with more features than its rivals and also offers the best fuel efffeciency. The only con is that the cabin space is not as good as its rivals but considering that Mr. Pughazhyendhii travels long distance with his family only once a month and since his child doesnt require the space of a fully grown adult, the pros far outweigh the cons and hence, the Hyundai venue is the best car for his needs.